Federico Del Bonis upsets Florian Mayer in first round – Mercedes Cup 2011
First round of the Mercedes Cup 2011 on Tuesday saw another disappointed home player going back to his locker room from the TC Weissenhof Court, Stuttgart as Argentine Federico Del Bonis upset local Florian Mayer in their first
round match.
Masters of the clay court, the Argentine had his previous head-to-head record against the German of 2-0. The current World No.240, Del Bonis won both of his fixtures on clay courts against the World No 20 Mayer.
Historically, Del Bonis has maintained his status of a ravishing clay court player winning the Rome Challenger against Florian Mayer, when he repeated the same act in the Mercedes Cup 1st round. Although the Argentine
and the German had a huge gap in rankings but this was truly a major upset of the tour.
The match went off as the Argentine served in the opener and put himself on the scoreboard. Following Del Bonis, the home player also held his serve. Both players had their grips tight until game 6 where Del Bonis won a break point
making it 4-2. From then the tables turned for Mayer as he lost the game 7 and 8 to give away the set 2-6 to Bonis. The Argentine won 17 service and returners to a total of 34 points in the first set.
The second, and the last, set of the match was opened again by Del Bonis. The argentine also opened the score board 1-0 serving first. Rallying the games one by one the scores went on to 4-3 after the game 15 when disaster struck
the home fans. Del Bonis won a breakpoint 5-3 and finally dropped the last bomb on Florian winning the set and the match 6-2, 6-3.
The magical performance by Del Bonis outgunned the German ending the match with a 20 point. Disgraced by the Argentine, Florian did not win a single breakpoint in the match. Winning 39 service points and 30 returners, Del Bonis
totalled 69 points to defeat Florian Mayer and reach to the 2nd round of the Mercedes cup 2011.
The Argentine, after sending Mayer back to the locker room, now targets the Ukrainian world No. 45 Sergiy Stakhovsky in the 2nd round of the tour. The problem is that Sergiy has the reputation of beating world top shots.
Can the rising star out swim the pool of experience. That remains to be seen.
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